Kenpom had a recent article about Houston I just reading today. I thought this was interesting....
Sampson’s Cougars always have talent but it’s rarely high-end talent. They make up the gap with activity. And how can you not root for that? (Well, many people find ways.) Analysts have struggled to measure activity but a signature of Houston’s offensive rebounding is that it’s driven by their ability to rebound long misses. Many of these cases are going to be balls that end up on the floor when leaping ability and size are no longer important to obtaining possession. Effort becomes a bigger factor.
Per play-by-play data, over the past 3 seasons, the Cougars have rebounded 40.1% of their three-point misses, which is the second-best rate in the country (Congrats, Purdue). They’ve rebounded 38.7% of their long 2’s, which is also 2nd in the country (Congrats, Towson). On shots near the rim, they’ve been quite fine, just not exceptional, grabbing 42.9% of their misses and ranking 28th over that time. It’s the long rebounds that drive their success.
This season, the difference is even more dramatic. They’ve rebounded 40.7% of their missed 3’s (5th), 42.5% of their long 2’s (4th) and just 38.9% of their short 2’s (164th). They’ve actually been a below-average offensive rebounding team on shots at the rim! But on shots where rebounds are likely to be longer or get to the floor, they excel.¹
watching that Texas game that came immediately to my mind. Man they are getting a ton of offensive boards from 3s and long 2s lol. It looks like the numbers bear that out.
Sampson’s Cougars always have talent but it’s rarely high-end talent. They make up the gap with activity. And how can you not root for that? (Well, many people find ways.) Analysts have struggled to measure activity but a signature of Houston’s offensive rebounding is that it’s driven by their ability to rebound long misses. Many of these cases are going to be balls that end up on the floor when leaping ability and size are no longer important to obtaining possession. Effort becomes a bigger factor.
Per play-by-play data, over the past 3 seasons, the Cougars have rebounded 40.1% of their three-point misses, which is the second-best rate in the country (Congrats, Purdue). They’ve rebounded 38.7% of their long 2’s, which is also 2nd in the country (Congrats, Towson). On shots near the rim, they’ve been quite fine, just not exceptional, grabbing 42.9% of their misses and ranking 28th over that time. It’s the long rebounds that drive their success.
This season, the difference is even more dramatic. They’ve rebounded 40.7% of their missed 3’s (5th), 42.5% of their long 2’s (4th) and just 38.9% of their short 2’s (164th). They’ve actually been a below-average offensive rebounding team on shots at the rim! But on shots where rebounds are likely to be longer or get to the floor, they excel.¹
watching that Texas game that came immediately to my mind. Man they are getting a ton of offensive boards from 3s and long 2s lol. It looks like the numbers bear that out.
